11/19/2012

Choose Wisely with Medicare Part D Plans

ManyMedicare beneficiaries are not aware that the open enrollment period for theMedicare Part D Drug plans is happening right now. You have until December 7thto determine if it is to your benefit to change plans, which could save youmoney.

Have you signed up for MedicarePart D yet? Time is ticking, but don’t move before thinking through theoptions. Just because something worked this year doesn’t mean that it will begood for you next year, and big changes are afoot in many popular plans. Sodon’t get trapped in an inefficient plan.

Here is a sobering statisticpulled by a posting over at the New OldAge blog on the New York Times: “only 5.2 percent of Medicare Part Dbeneficiaries manage to choose the most economical plan” (see “Part D, Part 2”). And why would thatbe? The market shifts greatly from year to year and providers frequently hidethe gritty details with broad promises, but it’s those very details thatdetermine your day-to-day life and much of your finances.